Mr. Yu Shi is the alias of Lu Weiqi, the former secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, in addition to his extraordinary official resume, he is also one of the few great Confucians in Henan. Lu Weiqi studied science since childhood, at the age of 26, he was awarded the rank of Yanzhou magistrate, and was promoted to the head of the Ministry of Officials, and later offended the 9,000-year-old Wei Zhongxian, resigned and returned to his hometown, and set up a lecture in Zhiquan to spread science. Chongzhen was reinstated in the first year and served as the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department. Due to the ineffectiveness of the "suppression of the Kou", he returned to Luoyang, established the "Yiluo Society", recruited disciples, wrote books and lectures, and students were all over the place. So although he is only an official of Zhishi, he still has a lot of weight in Luoyang City.

Ordinary people come to the Fu Wangfu Mansion so late to ask for a meeting, and most of them will eat behind closed doors, but Lu Weiqi's identity is detached, and the people in the palace dare not slack off and welcome him in.

Lu Weiqi followed the palace steward through the front yard and back garden, and saw all the way: I saw bright lights everywhere, golden mansions, rockery streams, and flowers in the garden. Although it was not the first time to visit, I was still shocked by this luxury and grandeur, and the Nanjing Imperial Palace may not be so gorgeous, and I shook my head all the way.

came to a large hall, and after reporting in advance, he took Lu Weiqi into the hall.

Outside the hall, the sound of silk and bamboo was only faintly heard, and after the palace door was opened, the sound of various musical instruments and singers singing in a low voice came to the face, and the aroma of wine and meat and the smell of fat powder were mixed together, making Lu Weiqi feel like he had entered another world.

Facing the scantily clad singer, Lu Weiqi, who was nearly sixty years old, didn't dare to raise his eyes, stared at the ground, and silently recited in his heart "Don't look at indecent things, don't listen to indecent people", and didn't dare to raise his head until he came to King Fu's seat.

Zhu Changxun is a fat man of more than 300 pounds, lying on his side on the couch like a big lump of meat, it is difficult to move, and the only flexible thing is a pair of eyes. Seeing Lu Weiqi's serious face, his eyes purred, he stretched out his hand to press, and the sound of dance and music stopped abruptly.

"Why is it that Mr. is here so late?"

Lu Weiqi said sincerely: "His Royal Highness King Fu, now Luoyang City is surrounded by thieves, and if there is a slight mistake, it will be the end of the city's ruin." Now all the officers and soldiers in the city, as long as they are men over the age of 15, have to defend the city, and the settling-in allowance and pension money are indispensable, and the government treasury is already beyond its means, so the governor, prefect, and general soldiers of Henan have recommended me to come and ask for a ......."

When Zhu Changxun heard this, he became sad and replied: "Defending the city is your business, what does it have to do with this king?" These settling down and pension money can't be let out of this king, right? ”

Lu Weiqi had heard that King Fu was rich and rival the country, but he was extremely stingy, and today he finally saw it, sighed in his heart, and persuaded patiently: "The lips are dead and the teeth are cold, Luoyang City is broken, how can the Liukou let go of the Fu Wangfu?" Even if you don't look at the hundreds of thousands of people in Luoyang, for the sake of Your Highness's own safety, please contribute to the defense of the city......"

Zhu Changxun tilted his head and thought about it, it seems that this is indeed the case, the outer city is broken, and the Fuwang Mansion will not be spared, if you think so, it will be better to have some money. He asked with some pain, "How much do you plan to make this king?" ”

Lu Weiqi said cautiously: "The governor yamen and the prefect's yamen have ordered people to calculate, excluding the officers and soldiers who are paid, there are more than 20,000 people recruited, and the government treasury has poured everything into it, and there is still a difference of 18,000 taels of silver......

"No, not that much silver!" Zhu Changxun interrupted the other party's words, "The palace has a lot of expenses, and the turnover is not much, at most a thousand taels, and if it is more, there is no need to talk about it." ”

Lu Weiqi was dumbfounded, he didn't expect this prince to be so stingy. After a long while, he reacted and stretched out a finger: "One thousand taels is just a drop in the bucket, how about ten thousand taels?" ”

"Two thousand taels at most, love or not!"

"The eight thousand taels?"

"Nope."

……

After some haggling, King Fu nodded on the figure of three thousand taels. Lu Weiqi saw that he couldn't get more silver, so he had to leave in a huff. It seems that the rest of the silver can only be decided from the rich families in the city.

On the second day, the silver collected from all over the city was carried up the city wall and distributed to the officers and soldiers and the people on a per capita basis, but the amount was reduced by half on the basis of the government's promise. The officers and men and the people were very dissatisfied with this treatment, and privately discussed the news they had heard.

"I heard that the government didn't have any money, so I looked for a big family to raise donations, but I didn't make up enough, so I sent us half of the ......."

"You know what. The big families in the city are not ambiguous, according to their family background, ranging from tens of taels to hundreds of taels. It's just that the Fu Palace, I heard that it is richer than the emperor, but I am only willing to pay three thousand taels of silver - I heard that even the dishes and chopsticks and floor tiles in the palace are gold, this bit of silver, it is enough to take a few pairs of dishes and chopsticks and knock a few bricks - so rich, but I don't want to take it out to reward the army, we people are hungry to defend the city, what do you say we want? ”

"And what's going on? Damn, if it weren't for the fact that my family was in the city, I wouldn't want to defend this city, and I would wait for the thieves to attack the city and rob the Fuwang Mansion! ”

The sound of discussion reached the ears of the two people who were sitting on the ground and dozing on the ground, and the eyes of the two quietly opened a slit, glanced at each other, and nodded slightly, it turned out that these two people were just pretending to sleep, and they were not really asleep.

After a while, one of them pretended to go to the latrine and went down the wall, while the other waited for a while, also pretending to go to the latrine and went on his heels.

"Do you hear that? This defender is not monolithic, and he does not even give enough settling-in allowance and pension money, as long as there is a slight setback, the tree will fall apart......"

"Yes, I have to think about informing my brothers outside the city of the situation in the city as soon as possible."

The two of them whispered and agreed on what to do, and then pretended to be nothing, and returned to the city wall one after the other.

At night, Liu Heizi came to Li Zicheng's big tent to ask for a meeting.

"Are you saying that the defenders of the city are dissatisfied with King Fu and are quite resentful, and the opportunity to attack the city has come?" Li Zicheng asked with squinted eyes.

"Exactly. The brothers we sent into the city said that King Fu was rich enough to rival the country, and that it would cost hundreds or thousands of taels of silver to set up a banquet, but in the face of the siege of the city, he was unwilling to pay for the money to raise the people to defend the city. Now the officers and soldiers defending the city and the people only get half of the settling-in fee, and once they die in battle, the pension money is not settled, and the resentment is very great, this is a good opportunity for King Chuang to attack the city on a large scale. ”

At the same time that Xia Nan decided to instigate Li Zicheng to attack Luoyang, he sent people from the Intelligence Department to infiltrate the city, and cooperate with the army outside the city.

Li Zicheng smiled and said: "Your general is simply the reincarnation of Zhuge , everything is counted in front, my army has not yet arrived, your meticulous work has already entered the city, and the means are clever!" ”

Liu Heizi smiled: "This is just to prove the sincerity of our general's cooperation with King Chuang, there is no other intention, the city is captured, we don't want a penny, King Chuang can rest assured." ”